HARTFORD, Conn. — A Hartford man was charged with manslaughter Friday in a hit-and-run accident last year that sparked outrage and a debate about the capital city’s morality after a video showed people ignoring the elderly victim.

City police announced the arrest of 33-year-old Luis Negron on Friday, only hours after the funeral for the victim, Angel Arce Torres, who died Monday at the age of 79 after his family gave approval to take him off life support.

“Last night at the wake of my father, we asked my father to help us out, to help us with justice,” said Torres’ son, Angel Arce. “We buried him today. We didn’t know he was gonna work that fast.”

The accident on May 30, 2008, left Torres paralyzed and mute. The state medical examiner ruled that his death was a direct result of the accident.

Police said in an arrest warrant released Friday that Negron confessed to being the driver of the car that struck Torres. But a lawyer for Negron, Carmine Giuliano, said the statement was made under duress, which police denied, and the only evidence against his client was hearsay.

Investigators said they received a tip Tuesday that Negron was involved in the hit-and-run. Officers pulled Negron over Thursday morning and charged him with driving with a suspended license and a tinted windows violation. The car he was in Thursday was not the car that hit Torres, police said.

The two cars involved in the incident and the other driver have not been found.

Authorities said Negron confessed after they confronted him with a statement by his girlfriend, who told investigators that Negron admitted to her that he was involved in the accident.

Negron was charged with first-degree manslaughter, evading responsibility, reckless driving and other motor vehicle crimes. He was arraigned Friday in Hartford Superior Court and ordered held in lieu of $700,000 bond. He did not enter a plea, and his case was continued to May 28.

Hartford State’s Attorney Gail Hardy called Negron’s actions “calloused and cold” and said the accident “captured the attention of not only the citizens of Hartford, but of the state of Connecticut and now the nation.”

Negron has previous convictions for drug possession, illegal possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle and failure to appear in court.

A surveillance camera recorded the accident in a busy Hispanic neighborhood. Police did receive 911 calls within a minute, but the video showed people on the street ignoring Torres.

After Torres was struck and as he lay motionless in the street, cars drove by without stopping and a motor scooter operator circled around him before taking off, the video showed.

The video touched off soul-searching in Hartford. Police Chief Daryl Roberts said at the time, “We no longer have a moral compass. We have no regard for each other.”

But this week, after people stepped forward with information and Negron was arrested, Roberts declared Friday, “Without this community’s help we could not have accomplished this … so I’m confident this community does care.”

Dozens of mourners gathered at St. Peter’s Church in Hartford for Torres’ funeral.

Afterward, the hearse was accompanied by a procession of police cruisers, motorcycles and cars as it headed down Park Street, where Torres was struck, on the way to a cemetery in Bloomfield.

“We lost a great guy, a person who was loved by everyone,” said Eddie Caraballo, who attended the funeral and said he knew Torres for four decades. “It was very sad.”